Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Solar, wind, storage & demand reduction were 1/6 of winners in regional power auction
The annual capacity auction is a method used by ISO-New England, the folks who run the six-state power grid, to ensure that we will have enough electricity even when circumstances are dire. Power plants tell them how much electricity they can guarantee to produce on...
Amazingly, NH contemplates making some industries pay for their own waste
I can't believe it will accomplish anywhere, since New Hampshire doesn't like doing anything that inconveniences businesses, but there's a bill that would look seriously at charging industries for the waste they create, reports NH Business Review story (here)....
Dartmouth Cancer Center develops process for quicker gene analysis
From Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center: Precision medicine is a rapidly advancing field that is unlocking potential therapies for a variety of diseases and conditions—particularly cancer—by looking for mutations in a patient’s genetic code. Identifying those...
17 (I think) places will consider community power at town meeting
I've written two stores recently about New Hampshire towns that will decide at town meetings this month whether to contract for community power. It should have been one story but I missed some and had to make up for it - here's a mash-up of the stories: The potential...
Our forests need us to figure out new stuff to do with them
When it comes to making money from a downed tree there aren’t many options: you can slice it into boards, burn it for heat, or mash it into paper. That’s about it. Or so I thought, and you probably did too. “That’s really the tip of the proverbial iceberg,” said Joe...
NH community college adds EV technician certificate, a first
White Mountains Community College in Berlin is the first community college in New Hampshire to offer an electric vehicle technician certificate in its automotive program. This year ... all students must take an EV class to earn their associate’s degree or certificate...
N.H. patents through March 5
(Links to each patent can be found here, using the patent number.) By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire through March 5. *** Apparatus for Producing Bulk Silicon Carbide GTAT CORPORATION, Hudson, New...
Hey, math fans: It’s a snowplow story that references the bridges of Königsberg!
Excellent story in the Washington Post about the complications of route optimization for snowplows. It includes the most famous origin story in mathematics - Euler realizing he couldn't cross the seven bridges of Königsberg just once and thus founding graph theory and...
On the third anniversary of COVID in NH, hospitals say their struggles have in some ways gotten worse
From a shortage of wheelchair vans to a looming shortage of nursing-school faculty, from weak Medicare reimbursements to soaring cost of part-time medical staff, from burned-out nurses who quit to patients who get sicker while waiting to be seen, it is hard to find an...
Using your own industrial waste is a no-brainer; why isn’t it done more often?
It’s hard to think of an environmental action that makes more sense than a business using its own waste product to replace something it otherwise has to buy. It makes sense even when it has a goofy name like “spunding.” That’s the term brewers use when using the...
Return to the Concord Monitor
Science Cafe NHAbout Granite Geek
Dave Brooks has written a science/tech column since 1991 – yes, that long – and has written this blog since 2006, keeping an eye on topics of geekish interest in and around New Hampshire, from software to sea level rise, population dynamics to printing (3-D, of course). He moderates monthly Science Cafe NH discussions, beer in hand, and discusses the geek world regularly on WGIR-AM radio..
Brooks earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics but got lost on the way to the Ivory Tower and ended up in a newsroom. He has reported for newspapers from Tennessee to New England. Rummage through his bag of awards you’ll find oddities like three Best Blog prizes from the New Hampshire Press Association and a Writer of the Year award from the N.H. Farm and Forest Bureau, of all places. He joined the Concord Monitor in 2015.